Monthly Archives: September 2014

One of my favorite summer vegetables is eggplant. I was delighted open Week One’s CSA basket and find that it included these two beautiful eggplants. Eggplant can be prepared in so many ways, it’s hard to pick a favorite recipe. Here is one that I adapted to include this vegetable: Cajun Rice Dressing with Eggplant. I made it for our family–my husband and I ate the entire dish in one meal.

This fall I feel like I’m on the television show “Chopped”. I am participating in CSA through my employer. On Monday I get a box of fresh produce from a local farmer to bring home and cook. Get ready, open basket, wait for the buzzer to go off and I’ve got a week to cook the box of food. It’s a fun challenge! And generous helping of fresh vegetables for our family.

Do tomatoes grow in Louisiana? Yes, they do. I’ve not had much luck, however, at growing them in my garden. But thanks to roadside stands and farmers’ markets, I’ve got some juicy, ripe tomatoes to use. And I’ve saved a recipe for “Roasted Tomato Soup”, hoping for the right occasion to use it.

My favorite summer vegetable is a vine ripe, juicy tomato. You won’t find this in a grocery store for reasons of transport and storage–plus tomatoes don’t ripen appreciably once they are picked and chilled. A farmer’s market, roadside stand or a summer garden is where you’ll find ripe tomatoes. My annual summer search for the best tomato met with success in a very unusual way during a recent trip to Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.

Some foods are just better when they are homemade. One of these is potato salad. There is no comparison with prepared potato salads from a grocery store. In Louisiana, it seems that potato salad accompanies almost every type of social meal. Most cooks have a favorite recipe or two and so do I. One of my favorite recipes includes dill pickles and pickle juice.